Greed and politics

Greed and politics Big government inevitably tempts influence-peddlers, argues Kyle Kutasi. Capitol Punishme The Hard Truth Abo Washington from America's Most Notorious Lobbyist By Jack Abramoff WND Books, 201 1, 320 pages

'The main thing about money is that it makes you do things you don't want to do/ Wall Street, 1987)

Wall Street is better known for a different quote, yet this line would be a perfect epithet for the life and times of Jack Abramoff, the K Street lobbyist who went to prison in 2006 for fraud and conspiracy to corrupt a number of US congressmen.

The Abramoff scandal didn't receive great coverage in the Australian press, but it was significant enough in the United States that nearly a dozen lobbyists and politicians faced criminal charges. It also forced Republican congressman Tom DeLay to resign as Speaker of the House.

Abramoff was born into a secular Jewish family but decided in his teens that he wished to follow the Orthodox Jewish faith, despite the problems that caused his family. His family were already very Republican, but it was this religious conversion that particularly informed his politics and he became an especially fanatical supporter of Ronald Reagan prior to and during his presidency.

He studied law at Georgetown but rarely attended classes, because he was by then taken with a passion for politics- he had become the national chairman of the College Republicans and became one of a rare few to serve multiple terms leading that organisation, such was his success as an organiser. He outshone contemporaries such as Rick Santorum, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed as the leader of a new breed of small-government conservatives, and he seemed headed for a long and successful career in politics when he was appointed as executive director of Citizens for America (Reagan's personal lobby group) at the tender age of 26.

Unfortunately however, his career began to head in a different direction from this time onwards. He seemingly never realises it, but...